15th December 2025

We have reached the final week of the Autumn term, and what a joyful and memorable end it has been! The children have had a wonderfully festive week and have continued to impress us with their enthusiasm, confidence and resilience as learners. We are incredibly proud of everything they have achieved during their first term in school.

Maths

This week, the children continued to deepen their understanding of number by revisiting the purpose of counting, to find out how many objects there are. Through practical activities, they practised 1:1 correspondence, ensuring that each object counted matched one number name.

The children developed their understanding of cardinality, learning that the final number counted tells us how many there are altogether. They began to apply this concept to more abstract counting, such as claps and jumps.

We also explored verbal counting beyond 20 through songs and rhymes, helping the children become familiar with the patterns in number names. The children linked quantities up to 5 with numerals and investigated conservation of number, discovering that quantities stay the same even when objects are rearranged.

Phonics

The children have absolutely WOWed us in their end-of-term phonics assessments. They confidently demonstrated their knowledge of sounds and tricky words, and their progress has been fantastic. Please do heap them with praise, they have worked incredibly hard and should feel very proud of themselves.

English

This week, the children enjoyed writing and sending Christmas cards to one another during learning time. They also used their phonics skills to sound out and write a list of CVC presents hiding in Father Christmas’ sack. It has been wonderful to see their growing confidence in applying their phonics independently in writing.

Special Days

The children thoroughly enjoyed their end-of-term party! They wore their homemade elf hats with pride, decorated and ate biscuits, joined in enthusiastically with games, and danced the afternoon away at our mini disco, the disco ball was a particular highlight!

Working Together

• The children have been working incredibly hard on fastening zips and coat buttons. We will be awarding Zippy Certificates in the first two weeks back after Christmas to children who can do this independently, so please continue practising at home.
• We have chosen not to collect reading books at the end of term this year. No additional books will be sent home.
• Children have brought home a selection of Christmas crafts, decorations and artwork from the term. Some creations didn’t quite stand the test of time, but every child has something they made, and we hope you enjoy celebrating their creativity together.
• In the new year, we will be restocking our junk modelling area – boxes and tubes are very welcome.
• When recycling Christmas cards, please consider saving the fronts for us, as we use them for collaging.

Thank you once again for your continued support. The children have had a wonderful first term in school, and it has been a pleasure getting to know them. We wish you a restful and happy break and look forward to welcoming you all back in the new year, happy and healthy.

The Reception Team 🎄

1st December 2025

We’ve had another wonderfully busy and festive week in Reception! The children continue to approach every activity with curiosity, confidence and enthusiasm as we move further into our celebrations theme.

Maths

This week in maths, we have been exploring stamplines (sometimes called “stampolines” by the children!). A stampline is a simple number line that helps children see how numbers grow by adding one more each time. We have watched the Numberblocks episode “Stampoline Park”, which shows how each jump adds the next number. This supports their developing understanding of number order and early addition.

Phonics

This has been a revision week in phonics. We have been consolidating all the sounds taught so far. The children have now met every letter of the alphabet, plus the digraph ck.

We have also been reading simple sentences containing 3, 4 and 5 words, focusing on:

· Using an uppercase letter at the start of a sentence

· Leaving finger spaces between each word

· Putting a full stop at the end

Letter formation continues to be a big focus for us. We will be sending home some helpful support sheets to keep these skills fresh over the Christmas holidays.

English

In English, the children have been writing letters and lists for Father Christmas, which they have loved posting into our very special North Pole Post Box. We’ve been developing early writing skills by encouraging children to use their phonics to sound out words independently.

Topic

Our investigation station has been transformed with a range of Christmas-themed objects for the children to explore, compare and discuss. In our small world area, we have introduced a Nativity scene, which has encouraged lots of lovely role play and storytelling. The children also thoroughly enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree in our home corner,this has been a highlight of the week!

Special Days

This week has been full of teamwork and festive fun:

· Decoration Day: The children worked in their house teams to create four different Christmas crafts as they moved around the school.

· Alternative Sports Day: Everyone took part in four energetic team games supported by our PSD coaches.

· Nativity Dress Rehearsal: The children are really pulling out all the stops now! Please continue encouraging them to practise their lines and project their voices, we know how loud they can be!

Next Week

· Monday 8th December – Nativity Performance (1:45pm)

· Tuesday 9th December – Nativity Performance (9:15am)

· Wednesday 10th December – “Walk to Lapland” Please see previous communication for details.

Working Together

· Please continue reading with your child daily and ensure their reading book is returned to school each morning. We have a limited number of books and need them back promptly so they can be reissued to other children.

· As the weather has turned colder, children are wearing (and removing!) more layers. Classrooms stay warm, so jumpers, hats and scarves often get taken off and put down. Please make sure all clothing is clearly named so we can return items quickly and easily.

17th November 2025

We’ve had a busy and exciting week in Reception! The children have thrown themselves into their learning with curiosity, creativity, and lots of enthusiasm as we continue to explore our celebrations theme.

Maths

This week in maths, we’ve been helping the children develop their early comparing skills. Children naturally begin to compare amounts from a very young age, and we’ve been building on this by encouraging them to look closely at two groups of objects and decide which has more, which has fewer, or whether they have the same number.

The children have been matching objects 1:1 (one object to one object) to help them see this clearly. If every object in one group can be matched without any left over, the sets are equal. If some are left unmatched, the children can see which group has more or fewer.

We’ve also been practising the language of “more than,” “fewer than,” and “an equal number” during activities, helping them become confident in describing what they see.

Phonics

This week we met some new phonics characters to help us remember our sounds:

· Jack the Jungle Explorer – j

· Val the Vet – v

· Wes the Weasel – w

· Alex the Fox – x

The children have been practising blending and segmenting with these sounds, working on simple CVC words such as bed, hat, and jug. We continue to use our blending and segmenting strategies: sound it, squash it, say it for reading and say it, stretch it, sound it for writing.

English

In English, the children have been writing simple sentences inspired by photos of themselves learning and playing. We printed pictures of the children enjoying activities around the classroom, and they used these to create their own meaningful sentences. Their confidence in sounding out and writing independently is growing beautifully.

Topic

Our topic this week has been celebrations, with a special focus on birthdays. We talked about why birthdays are important and how people celebrate them. The children have enjoyed:

· Making playdough birthday cakes

· Counting and adding the correct number of candles

· Designing birthday cards

· Writing party invitations

These creative activities have offered great opportunities for counting, early writing, and imaginative play.

Outdoors

We had great excitement this week with Wednesday’s snowfall! The children loved exploring the snow during their outdoor learning time. They’ve also been busy playing in the autumn leaves, collecting them, throwing them in the air, and using them in their imaginative games.

Next Week

Next week, we will continue our celebrations theme by learning about weddings. If you would like your child to bring in a wedding photograph to share with the class, please do, they make wonderful talking points!

Working Together

Nativity preparations are now well underway. By the end of this week, all children will have taken home their character parts and any lines they may have. Please take some time to help your child practise their lines, they are already so excited!

As the weather is getting colder, we are also encouraging the children to become more independent in getting ready for outdoor learning. Please support them at home in practising how to zip up their own coats.

3rd November 2025

We’ve had another wonderful week in Reception – the children have been full of enthusiasm and curiosity as we continue our learning journey through Autumn 2!

Maths

This week, the children have been deepening their understanding of the purpose of counting to find out how many objects there are altogether. They have been practising 1:1 correspondence, counting each object carefully as they move or tag them, and reinforcing their understanding of cardinality – that the last number they say tells us how many there are in total.

A key focus has been exploring 5 as a quantity, linking the number to the five fingers on one hand. The children have been representing numbers to 5 using both their fingers and the Hungarian number pattern (number 5 dice spot pattern), helping them recognise the ‘fiveness’ of 5 and preparing them to explore how numbers are composed and related to one another.

Phonics

In phonics, we have met some new characters to help us remember our sounds:
Haz the Hen – h sound
Bumble the Bee – b sound
Flick the Fly – f sound
Lily the Ladybird – l sound

The children have been practising reading and writing words containing these sounds, using the sound it, squash it, say it method to blend when reading, and say it, stretch it, sound it when segmenting for writing.  By the end of this week, every child will have been issued with a reading book.  Please see inside on the first page of the Reading Record for further details on reading days.

English

In English, we have been creating our own stories using a story sack filled with interesting characters – a lady, a baby, a wolf, a pirate, and a chef! The children have enjoyed inventing their own imaginative tales using familiar story language such as Once upon a time, One day, Unfortunately, Luckily, and Finally.

Topic

As many of the children enjoyed watching firework displays over the weekend, we continued our theme of Bonfire Night, exploring sounds, colours, and the excitement of fireworks through art and play. We also spent time reflecting on Remembrance Day, discussing why it is important and creating thoughtful artwork to show respect.

Outdoors

Our mud kitchen has been transformed into the “Field Maple Café!” The children have loved taking on roles – setting tables, taking orders, and serving delicious mud-made treats to their friends.

Next Week

Next week, we will continue to explore different festivals celebrated around the world. If your family celebrates a particular festival, we would love to hear about it so we can include it in our learning. Please let us know!

Working Together

Song rehearsals for our Nativity performance, “It’s a Baby,” are now in full swing! The children have expressed whether they would like to have lines, and we’ve made sure their choices have been honoured. If your child has a line to say, this will be sent home shortly along with details of their role and costume suggestions. More information will follow soon, it’s already shaping up to be a wonderful performance!